Thursday, December 26, 2013

Chinese Food and Church

9 years ago, a few days after Christmas, I went out to coffee with a new friend. She was talking about her nice Christmas Eve Dinner and told me that on their way to their church that night, she saw people sitting by the window at a local Chinese Restaurant. She felt so sad for those people, having to eat out on Christmas Eve. Well, guess what. That was our family! We didn't need pity, though. We were having a lovely time!

I used to cook a big meal for Christmas Eve but when we moved here that became very inconvenient. Our home is quite a ways from our church. We had two services, one before dinner time and one after dinner time. I was having trouble figuring out how to work all that out when we decided to just go down the street to a Chinese Buffet. It made things so easy, we've kept up the tradition.

Cordy was adorable and charming. Elise felt beautiful and kept showing us her dress. We all enjoyed each other's company. It wasn't perfect, as Ben and Sara weren't there, but it was precious time nevertheless.

Eric and Cordelia

Maria

Cordelia

Elise

Sam

After dinner we went to the church. Eric and I are both on the worship team and Mike has pastor duties so we always go pretty early. The church was full and the feeling was wonderful! The Worship Team sang for a good half hour before the service.

I love singing!

I love it when the church is full!

I love seeing people there who are home for Christmas with their families!

The whole evening was wonderful. I felt wrapped in love and tenderness.

After church, it was time for a few photographs. I'll leave you with those...

2 comments:

Our family has also simplified the food part of Christmas. We have a simple, easy to prepare ahead, meal on Christmas Eve. Anne Marie makes a breakfast casserole that goes in the refrigerator overnight and into the oven Christmas morning. It is very filling and serves as breakfast and lunch. It is so nice not to have to spend the whole holiday in the kitchen!